Chair Yoga at Woven

Yoga might not be for everybody, but it is for any body.

Our Chair Yoga classes use chairs, the walls, and other props throughout the whole class so you feel supported. Toni designs these classes with a sense of gentleness towards the wrist, shoulder, hip, knee and ankle joints: working toward flexibility and a greater range of motion mindfully and with purpose.

The class also uses chair work while gaining strength and improving balance. We use the support of the chair and the wall to find a sense of centeredness while keeping safe. With precise cuing, you’ll learn to utilize sleepy muscles to find ways of moving that feel spacious and strong.

Our standard All-Levels Flow class connects the body and the breath using a series of poses that moves from the ground to standing throughout the class. This works great for many people, but some individuals prefer to stay seated or move to the floor only once through a practice. Chair Yoga and Gentle Yoga begin seated, moves to standing, and ends with a seated, comfortable and relaxed rest pose.

Chair Yoga: Tuesdays 5 PM
Gentle Yoga: Wednesdays 4:30 PM

Just because you’re not running marathons anymore – or even though a flight of stairs might leave you out of breath – doesn’t mean you’re sentenced to a life of immobility. Science confirms the benefits of a regular yoga practice for the whole body: better sleep, lower hypertension, fewer injuries related to falling, not to mention the mental and emotional benefits related to stress, anxiety, depression and other invisible illnesses.

Yoga Benefits

• “…yoga is an effective means to reduce oxidative stress and to improve antioxidant defense in elderly hypertensive individuals.” (Source: Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research)
• “…yoga’s emphasis on flexibility and balance may help to reduce the risk of fall-related injuries,^17–19 which are prevalent among older adults and a leading cause of injury-related hospitalisation.³⁴ Healthy ageing does not merely correspond to longevity, but also optimising well-being.¹¹ With a holistic focus that includes physical, mental and spiritual well-being, yoga could be a suitable and appealing health maintaining activity for adults who find aerobic exercise difficult or impractical.” (Source: BMJ Medical Journal)
• “Based on the available scientific literature, this review suggests that the regular practice of Yoga can be considered as an effective intervention in improving physical (reduces heart rate, blood pressure, blood glucose, oxidative damage, fatigue, weakness, fear of fall, and improve heart rate variability, baroreflex sensitivity, insulin sensitivity, physical functions, mobility, flexibility, and urinary incontinence), mental (reduces depression, anxiety), emotional (reduces anger, stress, tension and improve self-efficacy), social (improve life satisfaction), and vital (improved vitality) planes of elderly individuals, offering a better quality of sleep and quality of life.” (Source: Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies)
• “…the [Yoga Intervention] group showed significant improvements in a range of subjective factors, including overall sleep quality; sleep efficiency; sleep latency and duration; self-assessed sleep quality; fatigue; general well-being; depression; anxiety; stress; tension; anger; vitality; and function in physical, emotional, and social roles.” (Source: Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine)